Why is my dough getting stickier while kneading?
I'm a little confused. Kneading has turned out to be one of the tougher things for me to figure out with bread baking. I always feel like I didn't do it right. One thing is that I don't really know what properly kneaded dough should feel like. I've read posts on here, and watched a few different youtube videos, and still can't figure it out. Everything I've seen indicates the dough should get less sticky and more pliable when it is properly kneaded. I can't seem to get that result. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. My dough does seem to be more extensible after a while of kneading, but it also becomes more sticky, and doesn't want to let go of my hands or my work surface. It sticks to everything like chewed gum.
I know there are several variables in bread making. I'll try to explain as much as I can about mine. I'm usually baking with my 100% hydration sourdough starter, but I've also recently baked a recipe using commercial yeast only, out of a book. I've used different flours, ranging from AP to Bread to Whole Wheat. Usually, it is a random mix of two or more of those. Sometimes I have my starter kept on top of my fridge, being fed twice a day, sometimes in the fridge being fed once a week or so. I'm very experimental with my food, if you can't tell. I've had some decent loaves, some great ones, and a couple of barely-edible-but-not-quite-a-brick loaves in the past few months that I've been baking. Sometimes I get great flavor, sometimes no discernible flavor, and exactly once the loaves turned out to be really sour. I don't know what I'm doing most of the time (really, like ever), but I haven't counted many of my attempts as disasters. I have learned a lot, but currently trying really hard to get the kneading down, and I'm stumped.